If Joel Embiid had fallen to the Boston Celtics, team president of basketball operations Danny Ainge admitted he would have selected the injury-prone big man.

"Yes, we would have," Ainge told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Friday, one day after taking Marcus Smart and James Young in the first round.

Ainge said Embiid's injury risks scared the Celtics, but they would have rolled the dice on him anyway.

"He was not red-flagged, meaning, 'Stay away at all costs.'" said Ainge. "He was rated a little bit less than that with risk, but he was a guy that we were looking at had he fallen."

Ainge said he gave "strong considerations" to Gary Harris at No. 17, but ranked Young in his top 10 and felt excited that the Kentucky product was available.

"Love Gary Harris," Ainge said. "But we probably did have a lot of guards under 6-3 at that point. We needed to add shooting for sure and we needed a little size in shooting. But we did have Gary Harris ranked high as well, and Gary is a terrific player and will have a good career."

One difference between Harris and Young: Ainge believes the latter can play small forward. With Smart, Rajon Rondo and maybe Avery Bradley (he's a restricted free agent) already in the backcourt, Harris would not have been a great fit.